Advice for calling US Mobile Phone?

See ?....the merrycans are not stupid.........they don't throw out the baby with the bathwater.....our analogue TV is next...new technology squandering the worlds resources.....

yes they are available but watch out for things like no roaming to other networks, no roaming outside the home city or State etc. They aren't common like in the UK, by far the majority are on contract phones (paying for incoming calls is a factor).

GSM coverage has improved a lot but isn't everywhere by a long chalk, so a review of maps is called for. Their are analogue and digital prepay options (Virgin Mobile using Sprint is digital but not GSM so texting won't work).

If she calls you on your UK mobile it'll almost certainly cost a hell of a lot more than 10c per minute. It costs over 21p per minute to call a "3" mobile from a UK (BT) landine - calling it from the US is likely to be more.

That's the other side of the coin to the US system of mobile user paying for incoming calls. It costs a lot to terminate calls on UK mobiles so the cost of calling them is very high.

-- Andy

My 2p worth

Orange PAYG works in usa - you could text her cheaply and she could receive for nowt. If she could get access to a land line, you could call her cheaply with 1899 from your landline, or quite cheaply from an Orange mobile with 18866.

Don't know about t'other mobile networks sorry!

They pay for minutes used. For in-bound it's just minutes consumed. For outbound it's minutes plus any long-distance that might be involved. Calls to/from phones on the same provider are often free (this varies from one carrier to another). Free as in not consuming any minutes.

Even if she used one of the calling card /pre-dial companies that claim massively cheap rates to call the UK?

Mark.

Yup, the cheapest rate I've got to a UK mobile is $0.15 a minute.

Stu

Yes. They will have much higher rates for calling UK mobiles than for calling UK landlines. They would lose money on calls to mobiles otherwise, since your UK mobile operator charges them high termination fees.

It's the same calling from the UK to countries where it is free to receive mobile calls (eg France). The cost of calling French mobiles is a hell of a lot more than the cost of calling French landlines (on 1899 it is 15 times the cost!). Calling US mobiles is the same price as calling US landlines because of the US system where mobile users pay to receive.

All mobile operators have high termination fees - the difference between the US and UK system is who pays it. In the UK the caller always pays, in the US the mobile user pays.

Forget mobiles - use landlines wherever possible and you and your girlfriend can gas very cheaply, or even free.

-- Andy

If someone anywhere (even in the USA standing right next to you using a normal house phone in a US house) calls a US cellphone, then the recipient pays for those minutes. US mobiles are on normal dialling codes so cost no more to call than any other local number. The extra cost is picked up by the recipient.

If the phone is working, 911 is required to be working, free.

There are groups that collect old phones (partially to keep them out of the landfills) and give the working ones to women at risk.

The caller has the choice whether to pay the cost of calling a mobile or not.

Thankfully we never went down the crazy route of paying for incoming calls.

Yes, but the mobile networks use termination charges to subsidise the prices they charge their users. On a "caller pays" system, it should cost the same to call a mobile from a landline as to call a landline from a mobile - but it is generally much cheaper to call a landline from a mobile.

No? Ever used your phone abroad?

-- Andy

Thus spaketh Andy Pandy:

Yes, many many times, but that is roaming, and things are changing in that area too.

Does that mean that if *I* choose not to have a phone at all, I have to pay for a taxi for the caller to come and visit me ? Why should a caller pay to travel to my house, just because *I* choose not to have a phone ?

Richard [in PE12]

Are you saying that a US GSM handset can not "roam" outside their own state (or even city) ? And why is that called "roaming" ?

Richard [in PE12]

And there is no mobile-specific number (like 07). They are all geographical numbers relating to the area the sim originates, indistinguishable from landlines. The amount US mobile users pay to receive calls is fixed, regardless of where they originate. It varies between 15 (8p) and 35 (20p) cents a minute, depending on how much credit you get on your sim card or when you top-up. Calling UK is around $1.50 a min (82p).

Alec

That's a poor analogy, they can always write a letter

As I said, US calling plans generally have more inclusive minutes for the money than we do so using some for incoming calls rarely causes a problem. My friends in San Francisco pay around $35 for 2000 minutes and never use them all, even with incoming calls.

Ivor

Is that why they are fast dumping Analogue AMPs phones on 850MHz for 850MHz GSM?

Giving them dualband 850 and 1900MHz GSM, and with quad band GSM phones, world-wide roaming.

I take it Freeview BBC3 and 4, and ITV2 and 3 are a mystery to you?

Steve Terry

The way I do this at the moment, is I can call my friend who's on T mobile in the states out of my inclusive minutes from my o2 contract using telediscount as a dial through number. He gets minutes deducted from his inclusive minutes bundle for when I call. However, calling him on his landline results in a totally free call from either end (unless you run out of inclusive contract minutes) :-) So if your girlfriend can access a landline then you can call free using inclusive minutes on an O2 contract via telediscount.

If she's looking for a prepay for you to txt on, I managed to pick up a tmobile prepay sim card when I was over there in a tmobile store. Works fine for txting and for receiving calls from the UK (although it's right about paying either in money or minutes to receive calls)

Hope this helps,

Em